In light of the latest bombshell story in the Washington Post, Republican and Trump apologists are desperately arguing that there is no proof of Trump/Russia collusion, a piece in Salon looks at one GOP strategist who admits that he colluded with Russian hackers - and shared information with Trump confident Roger Stone. If nothing else, the Trump presidency seems to have brought new life to investigative reporting, something that is most welcomed. Of course, if we had seen this kind of reporting during the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton would likely be president. I truly hope that the practice of false equivalency dies in the process that is ongoing. Here are article highlights on the admitted GOP collusion with Russian hackers:

The U.S.
intelligence community has long since concluded Russia meddled in the 2016
election, and it was reported shortly after the 2016
presidential election that a GOP superPAC linked to Paul Ryan used illegally
hacked material to attack Democratic House candidates. But a bombshell report published on
Thursday confirms that Republican political operatives were working with the
Russian government to hurt Hillary Clinton and Democrats during the election —
the first direct evidence of so-called collusion.

The Wall Street
Journal reported that hacked
information was posted on a blog run by Aaron Nevins, the political operative,
and then passed along to top Trump adviser Roger Stone during the campaign. The
Republican operative in Florida received a trove of Democratic documents from
the allegedly Kremlin-linked hacker, Guccifer 2.0. For months, both Congress
and the FBI have been scrutinizing evidence that associates of Trump may have
colluded with Russia during the campaign.

Nevins confirmed
to the Journal that he told hacker Guccifer 2.0 to “feel free to send any
Florida based information” after learning that the hacker had tapped into
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) computers last summer.

Nevins told the Journal that, after receiving the stolen documents
from the hacker, he “realized it was a lot more than even Guccifer knew that he
had.” The stolen DCCC documents also contained sensitive information on voters
in key Florida districts, breaking down how many people were considered
dependable Democratic voters, undecided Democrats, Republican voters and the
like. Nevins made a war analogy, describing the data he received to Guccifer
2.0 as akin to a “map to where all the troops are deployed.”

After Nevins published some of the material on the blog HelloFLA.com,
using his own pseudonym, Guccifer 2.0 sent a link of the information to close
Trump associate Roger Stone — who is currently under federal investigation for
potential collusion with Russia.

Stone told the
Journal that while he did receive a link to Nevins’s blog from Guccifer 2.0, he
didn’t share the stolen data published on the blog with anyone.

In addition to
receiving hacked information about Democratic races in Florida, Nevins also
received internal details about congressional districts in Kentucky,
Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. The Congressional Leadership
Fund, a super PAC with close ties to House Speaker Paul Ryan, eventually used the material that was
stolen by hackers in attack ads against several Democrats.

Anthony
Bustamante, a Republican campaign consultant for Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL),
told the Journal that he used the stolen information to plan ad buys and better
target a mailer effort: “I did adjust some voting targets based on some data I
saw from the leaks.”

For his part, Trump has repeatedly denied any coordination with
Russian officials. The Kremlin has also rejected any connection to Guccifer
2.0. But both the Department of Homeland Security and Director of National
Intelligence believe Guccifer 2.0 is tied to Russian military intelligence.

As much as the nation needs Donald Trump removed from the office of the presidency, the big worry is that Mike Pence, an ignorance embracing evangelical Christian and bigot, might be his replacement unless we are lucky enough to have pence also caught up in the Russiagate scandal. For LGBT Americans, Pence poses a special threat given his record of anti-LGBT bigotry, including signing a falsely named "religious freedom" law while governor of Indiana. But others need to worry about what this closed minded religious zealot might push as his agenda. The New York Times has a very unflattering piece on Pence. Here are excerpts:

Mr. Pence’s great appeal to many people now is that he is not Donald
Trump. Liberals salivate that Robert Mueller might metaphorically reverse an
election they see as stolen by a steak salesman and his Moscow buddies.
Conservatives dream of ridding themselves of a nutbag and installing a man who
can pursue tax cuts and a few more Justice Neil Gorsuches without the fear of a
third world war being started because of something Mr. Trump heard on Infowars.

Still, maybe we should all
stop and ponder an actual Pence presidency.

It
is possible that we could replace the most flamboyant and flamboyantly
unqualified president in history with the most quietly unqualified and
unexamined president since Warren Harding. (He has never answered whether he
believes in evolution, but the evidence is not encouraging.)

Mr. Trump was the bloated Macy’s parade float that no one thought had
a chance, and not a lot of time was spent investigating his generic sidekick
holding the ropes.

Mr.
Pence was elected governor of Indiana in 2012 with less than 50 percent of the
vote. Many of the politicos I talked to in Indiana described him as ambitious
for the sake of ambition, with no ideological compass other than his
evangelical Christianity. They thought that, unlike the previous governor,
Mitch Daniels, Mr. Pence was interested in the job mainly to check off
executive experience on his presidential-candidate résumé.

He certainly couldn’t stress
his 12 years in Congress — an earlier congressional bid exploded when he used
campaign funds to pay his mortgage — where he passed exactly zero bills that
became law but frequently introduced legislation to defund Planned Parenthood.

Mr. Pence wrote in 2001 that
the link between smoking and cancer was not proved, but during the 2012
campaign he hid his paleo-conservative views, talking instead of getting
Indiana back to work. He pivoted after taking charge.

In 2015, conservative activists pressured Indiana legislators to
introduce the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a bill that would make it
easier for Indiana business owners to discriminate against gays if it offended
their religious beliefs. Mr. Pence stood on the sidelines as the bill was
constructed and signed the legislation in private. He then released a
photograph of the signing that was so dumbfounding that Indiana State
Representative Ed DeLaney, a Democrat, was accused of Photoshopping it by his
colleagues when he circulated it. The photo showed Mr. Pence, pen in hand,
surrounded by nuns and monks and three conservative backers, each with
violently anti-gay beliefs. Immediately, corporations and convention groups
threatened to pull business out of Indianapolis, a move that could have cost
the state millions.

The
controversy metastasized. . . . . . Mr. Stephanopoulos gave Mr. Pence two
chances to say he was not in favor of discrimination against gay people. He
declined and pronounced he would not revise the law.

This did not sit well back
home in Indiana. Legislative leaders met to work their way out of the political
disaster and Mr. Pence wasn’t invited. A compromise was reached that pleased no
one but was mushy enough that the tourists came back. Mr. Pence signed the bill
and slipped out of the statehouse without taking any questions.

“America needs to understand that this is what they’re going to get,”
said Scott Pelath, the Democratic House minority leader. “He is not going to
look at something, assess it, think critically about it and go.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act had killed Mr. Pence’s
presidential dreams; now he was trying to hang on to his day job. In April, he
was booed at the home opener of the Indianapolis Indians, the city’s AAA team,
shortly after he signed a restrictive anti-abortion bill. A
May poll found the governor and his Democratic opponent in a statistical dead
heat.

On July 15, Mr. Trump threw Mr. Pence the life preserver. The Indiana
governor gave Mr. Trump cover with the Christian right. And Mr. Pence proved to
have something in common with Mr. Trump: Most observers thought he won the
vice-presidential debate with Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia by sticking to his
talking points, no matter their relationship with reality. (PolitiFact ruled that over 40 percent of Mr. Pence’s
statements were either false or mostly false.)

Mr. Pence has done little as vice president to suggest he is rising to
the occasion. As head of the transition committee, he was either (a) kept in
the dark about Michael Flynn’s being investigated for his international ties or
(b) lied about it. Neither is a comforting thought. Both are totally him.

The only certainty of a Pence presidency is a Christian conservative
bias for judges who will make Americans long for the relatively sane Justice
Gorsuch.

Do I think
Mike Pence is less likely to start a nuclear war than Donald Trump or to throw
a reporter in jail over a Twitter beef about his daughter’s shoe line?
Absolutely. There is that upside.

Let's hope and pray that Russiagate takes down Pence too. The man is a menace, albeit a different sort of menace than Der Trumpenführer.

Another day and another breaking headline suggesting that perhaps we are indeed moving closer to two words: treason and impeachment. Increasingly, one feel's that we are living a real life version of David Baldacci's Absolute Power or some other spy thriller with a rogue president of the United States. Late yesterday the Washington Post broke a new story that revealed that monitored communications between Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Moscow indicated that Jared Kushner and Michael Flynn met with Kislyak and discussed using Russian communications networks to allow Trump officials to communicate with the Kremlin without detection by American intelligence services. Obviously, it is hard to believe that Trump was not aware of the proposal. One can only ask what did they want to communicate that could not be seen by American CIA, FBI and other agencies? It's almost to the point where I am going to start addressing my "friends" who voted for Trump by the term "comrade." Of course, Fox News will either not report this story or so pervert it that it bears no resemblance to reality. Here are highlights from the Post story:

Jared Kushner
and Russia’s ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a
secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and
the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield
their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials
briefed on intelligence reports.

Ambassador Sergey Kislyak reported to his superiors in Moscow that
Kushner, son-in-law and confidant to then-President-elect Trump, made the
proposal during a meeting on Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower, according to
intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by U.S. officials.
Kislyak said Kushner suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the
United States for the communications.

The meeting also was attended by Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national
security adviser.The White House disclosed the meeting only in March, playing down its
significance. But people familiar with the matter say the FBI now considers the
encounter, as well as another meeting Kushner had with a Russian banker, to be
of investigative interest.

Kislyak
reportedly was taken aback by the suggestion of allowing an American to use Russian
communications gear at its embassy or consulate — a proposal that would have
carried security risks for Moscow as well as the Trump team.

The White House
declined to comment. Robert Kelner, a lawyer for Flynn, declined to comment.
The Russian Embassy did not respond to requests for comment.

Kushner’s
apparent interest in establishing a secret channel with Moscow, rather than
relying on U.S. government systems, has added to the intrigue surrounding the
Trump administration’s relationship with Russia.

To some
officials, it also reflects a staggering naivete. The FBI closely
monitors the communications of Russian officials in the United States, and it
maintains a nearly constant surveillance of its diplomatic facilities. The
National Security Agency monitors the communications of Russian officials
overseas.

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said that although Russian
diplomats have secure means of communicating with Moscow, Kushner’s apparent
request for access to such channels was extraordinary.

The discussion
of a secret channel adds to a broader pattern of efforts by Trump’s closest
advisers to obscure their contacts with Russian counterparts.

Kushner’s
interactions with Russians — including Kislyak and an executive for a Russian
bank under U.S. sanctions — were not acknowledged by the White House until they
were exposed in media reports.

In addition to
their discussion about setting up the communications channel, Kushner, Flynn
and Kislyak also talked about arranging a meeting between a representative of
Trump and a “Russian contact” in a third country whose name was not identified,
according to the anonymous letter.

Now that it is known that he is a person of interest in the Russiagate investigation, I suspect that we will be learning much more about presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner. Based on a piece in Politico's magazine section, what we are likely to learn is not going to be good or flattering. Seemingly, in the opinion of the article's author, beneath the polite veneer he works to maintain, Kushner is far more like his thuggish father-in-law and only too willing to play dirty and engage in underhanded conduct. One would have thought that Kushner would have realized the truth would come out at some point. His ties to Russiagate will likely accelerate that process and his reputation in society circles could well take a hit. Here are brief highlights from a very long article:

He was supposed
to be the calm one, cool and unflappable under his Ray-Bans and beltless blue
bespoke suits. If Steve Bannon was the Rumpelstiltskin of the administration,
donning multiple half-tucked dress shirts at a time and always carrying a
clutch of briefing papers and barreling through the administrative state, Jared
Kushner, through pedigree and temperament, could reach out one of his long,
elegant fingers and tap everyone in the West Wing on the shoulder and urge them
to just cool out a bit. In a White House sullied by ties to Russia and all
sorts of unsavory characters from the fringe, Kushner was set to float above,
surrounding himself with fellow figures from the elite worlds of Manhattan
finance and real estate and deep-sixing the harder-edged ideas of the White
House’s “nationalist” wing.

Except that this
isn’t quite how it has gone in the White House over the last several months. It
was Kushner who reportedly pushed for the firing of FBI Director James Comey
over the objections of Bannon. And it was Kushner who was the lone voice urging
for a counterattack after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the
appointment of a special prosecutor, according to the New York Times.
And it is now Kushner whose family’s business activities leave him open to the
same level of charges of conflict of interest that have dogged his wife and
father-in-law, and Kushner who appears to be as closely tied to the Russian
government as anyone serving in the White House: NBC News and the Washington
Post reported Thursday that the FBI is taking a close look at his contacts
with the Russians.

The widespread
assumption liberals make about Kushner seems to be this: Because he is
soft-spoken, slim and handsome, with degrees from Harvard and NYU and a family
that donates to Democrats, he couldn’t possibly be the same guy knifing his
West Wing rivals and urging the president to go to war with the Justice
Department and the FBI. But that
assumption is wrong. . . . . those who know him from his days as a young New
York real estate magnate and newspaper publisher say that America is just
getting to know the Jared Kushner they have always known. . .

By all accounts,
Jared was deeply affected by his father’s prison sentence [for illegal campaign
contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering], and visited him weekly.

And so in an
effort to rehabilitate the family name, Kushner focused the family business on
Manhattan and purchased the New York Observer, a pink-paged society
weekly that made up in influence among the social and literary elite what it
lacked in circulation or profitability (full disclosure: I worked as a
political reporter there from 2010-2012). But the paper soon expanded into
coverage of Kushner’s home turf of commercial real estate, and people in that
world saw the paper’s editorial resources devoted to pushing Kushner’s agenda or settling his scores.

“The Observer
became his mouthpiece in the world of New York City real estate,” said one
prominent real estate broker who asked to remain anonymous because “like
everybody else in New York and New Jersey real estate I realize there is no
upside to talking about Jared Kushner or Donald Trump.”

[T]he anger
toward him among former Observer employees runs deep. . . . . Just
before the election, Kahlon described her former boss on Facebook thusly:
“We’re talking about a guy who isn’t particularly bright or hard-working,
doesn’t actually know anything, has bought his way into everything ever (with
money he got from his criminal father), who is deeply insecure and obsessed
with fame (you don’t buy the NYO, marry Ivanka Trump, or constantly talk about
the phone calls you get from celebrities if it’s in your nature to ‘shun the
spotlight’), and who is basically a shithead.”

Meanwhile,
damaging stories keep landing as journalists dig into the Kushner real estate
empire, which is said to have taken part in at least $7 billion worth of acquisitions
over the past decade and, according to Forbes, to have a worth close to $1
billion. A recent investigation by
ProPublica revealed that Kushner Companies have bought thousands of distressed
apartment complexes in Rust Belt cities in recent years, hardly the stuff of
Manhattan dreams. A subsidiary that manages the complexes has been ruthless in
pushing out those who didn’t pay their rent, ProPublica reported, hitting them
with steep late fees and even going after them in court.

Alec MacGillis,
who reported the story, found that few of the “Kushnerville” residents he met
knew their money was going to a company owned by the son in law of President
Trump. “That Jared Kushner?” one exclaimed. “Oh, my God. And I thought
he was the good one.”

A man in Welch, W.Va., with groceries from a food bank that supports local families

Between the latest GOP Trumpcare proposal and the budget proposal put forth by the White House, it is very evident that the combined agenda is one that favors the very wealthy and shows nothing but contempt for pretty much everyone else. The most special contempt is reserved for the poor, the sick, and low income workers. Under both the latest Trumpcare proposal and Der Trumpenführer's budget proposal, the wealthy would receive literally trillions of dollars in tax cuts while programs that assist the less fortunate would be devastated. Yet, too many white Americans continue to vote for Republicans such as happened in Montana where the GOP candidate had been charged with assault. Apparently, many whites will vote for their own economic and financial destruction as long as appeals are made to their racism, religious extremism and xenophobia. Paul Krugman looks at the ugliness of the Trump/GOP proposals.

For journalists covering domestic policy, this past week poses some
hard choices. Should we focus on the Trump budget’s fraudulence — not only does
it invoke $2 trillion in phony savings, it counts them twice — or on its cruelty?
Or should we talk instead about the Congressional Budget Office assessment of
Trumpcare, which would be devastating for older, poorer and sicker Americans?

There is, however, a unifying
theme to all these developments. And that theme is contempt — Donald Trump’s
contempt for the voters who put him in office.

You may recall Trump’s remark
during the campaign that “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot
somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” Well, he hasn’t done that, at least
so far. He is, however, betting that he can break every promise he made to the
working-class voters who put him over the top, and still keep their support.
Can he win that bet?

When it comes to phony
budget math — remember his claims that he would pay off the national debt? — he
probably can. We’re not talking about anything subtle here; we’re talking about
a budget that promises to “abolish
the death tax,” then counts
$330 billion in estate tax receipts in its rosy forecast. But even I don’t expect
to see this kind of fraud get much political traction.

The bigger question is whether someone who ran as a populist, who
promised not to cut Social Security or Medicaid, who assured voters that
everyone would have health insurance, can keep his working-class support while
pursuing an agenda so anti-populist it takes your breath away.

To make
this concrete, let’s talk about West Virginia, which went Trump by more than 40 percentage points, topped only
by Wyoming. What did West Virginians think they were voting for?

They are, after all,
residents of a poor state that benefits immensely from federal programs: 29
percent of the population is on
Medicaid, almost 19 percent on food
stamps. The expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare is the main reason the
percentage of West Virginians without health insurance has halved since 2013.

And just to be clear, we’re talking about white people here: At 93
percent white, West Virginia is one of the most minority- and
immigrant-free states in America. . . . . they also believed that he was a
different kind of Republican. Maybe he would take benefits away from Those
People, but he would protect the programs white working-class voters, in West
Virginia and elsewhere, depend on. What
they got instead was the mother of all sucker punches.

Trumpcare,
the budget
office tells us, would cause 23 million people to lose health insurance,
largely through cuts to Medicaid — remember, the program that benefits almost a
third of West Virginians. It would also lead to soaring premiums — we’re
talking increases on the order of 800 percent — for older Americans whose
incomes are low but not low enough to qualify for Medicaid. That describes a
lot of Trump voters. Then we need to add in the Trump budget, which calls for
further drastic cuts in Medicaid, plus large cuts in food stamps and in disability
payments.

What would happen to West Virginia if all these Trump policies went
into effect? Basically, it would be apocalyptic: Hundreds of thousands would
lose health insurance; medical debt and untreated conditions would surge; and
there would be an explosion in extreme poverty, including a lot of outright
hunger.

Oh, and
it’s not just about crucial benefits, it’s also about jobs. Coal isn’t coming
back; these days, West Virginia’s biggest source of employment is health care
and social assistance. How many of those jobs would survive savage cuts in
Medicaid and disability benefits?

Now, to
be fair, the Trump budget would protect West Virginians from the ravages of the
estate tax, which affects around 20 — that’s
right, 20 — of the state’s residents each year.

In the case of West Virginians, this scam could end up pretty much
destroying their state.

Will they
ever realize this, and admit it to themselves? More important, will they be
prepared to punish him the only way they can — by voting for Democrats?

True, I have little sympathy for the cretins who fell for Trump's and the GOP's lies that they would take care of then. With more than 30 years of history to show that "trickle down economics" only benefits the rich, they should have known better and closed their ears to appeals to racism and misogyny. But those I have the most disgust with are those whites in particular who will not be hurt by the Trump/GOP proposals who go to church on Sundays and feign fealty to the Gospel message (some post falsely pious things on Facebook as well) even as they vote for politicians that are pushing agendas diametrically the opposite of what a true Christian should support. Their churches are little more than social clubs. They most assuredly are not fighting for implementing the Gospel message. It's these folks - and the Christofascists - who have helped me to walk away from Christianity. They are hypocrites and modern day Pharisees with whom I want to have as little contact as possible.

Donald Trump ranted against the 9th Circuit when his first attempt at a ban against Muslims went down in flames. Now, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has struck down Der Trumpenführer's second attempt at banning Muslims from entering America. In its ruling, the Court recognized the motivation behind the executive order: religious based intolerance and animus. The ruling will not sit well with Christofascists but ought to be encouraging for those who continue to believe in true religious freedom - not the perverted Christofascist version - and the First Amendment. Salon looks at the ruling which will likely push the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here are highlights:

Yet another
federal court ruled against President Donald Trump’s ban on travel from six
majority-Muslim nations. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the
so-called Muslim travel ban executive order “drips with religious intolerance,
animus, and discrimination.” The court refused to lift a nationwide injunction
blocking the ban.

In a 10-3
ruling, the federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, noted that President
Trump’s power to deny entry to immigrants, while “broad,” isn’t “absolute.”

[A]n Executive Order that in text speaks
with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious
intolerance, animus, and discrimination. Surely the Establishment Clause of the
First Amendment yet stands as an untiring sentinel for the protection of one of
our most cherished founding principles—that government shall not establish any
religious orthodoxy, or favor or disfavor one religion over another. Congress
granted the President broad power to deny entry to aliens, but that power is
not absolute. It cannot go unchecked

Trump’s revised
ban “cannot be divorced from the cohesive narrative linking it to the
animus that inspired it,” Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote.

Trump’s revised
ban was announced in March after the first version of the ban was shot down by
federal courts. But the ban on people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria,
and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days
never got off the ground because federal courts blocked it just hours before it
was set to go into effect.

While Donald Trump kissed the asses of members of the Saudi royal family and said not a word about Saudi Arabia's horrific human rights abuses and religious extremism, he apparently has no qualms about trashing America's European allies. In addition to deriding NATO countries and shoving the president of Montenegro out of his way during a photo, Trump decided to pick a fight with Germany and bitched about the sale of German cars in America, seemingly oblivious to the reality that many BMW's and Mercedes-Benz's are built in states like South Carolina and Alabama and that the two companies employ thousands of Americans. Volkswagen Chattanooga (Tennessee) employs another 2,000 Americans. The Raw Story looks at Trump's anti-German statements. Here are excerpts:

In a discussion
about the country’s trade surplus, Trump said. “The Germans are evil, very
evil.” “Look at the
millions of cars they sell in the US, and we’ll stop that,” sources told Der
Spiegel.

According to the
report, EU Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker took up for Germany explaining that
“free trade is good for all.”

According to a
report from the “Süddeutsche Zeitung,” the EU allies were horrified by the
willingness of the Americans to view global trade with such a lack of
awareness. Trump’s economic consultant Gary Cohn was said to have chided German
auto trade during a discussion between the US and Germany and the USA and
Belgium. Trump had previously attacked them during another conversation.

“I would say to
BMW if they want to build a factory in Mexico and sell cars to the US without a
35 percent tax, they can forget that,” Trump said at the time.

Trump
is bothered by Germany’s trade surplus because many other countries have
deficits, particularly the U.S.

The man is an idiot. Meanwhile, the husband and I have owned or now own 7 Mercedes-Benz's and a Volkswagen. Why? Because of the quality of the cars for the money. Perhaps if American automakers focused more on quality and fuel efficiency rather than big ass SUV's Germany would have fewer car sales in America.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

While Der Trumpenführer is on his first foreign trip - and no doubt hoping he can distract the media from Russiagate coverage here at home - the Washington Post and New York Times, among others, continue to have new stories that are not only keeping Russiagate alive, but breathing even more new life into the roiling scandal, Now, the Washington Post has released a story that reveals that Jared Kushner is a target in the probe due to (i) his numerous meetings with Russian officials and bankers, and (ii) his failure to report such meetings when he applied for security clearance. Frankly, it makes sense that Trump would have used Kushner as his go between with Russian operatives since he is both a family member and reportedly one of Trump's closest advisers. That said, Mike Flynn, who had received payments from Russia, also remains a target of the investigation. Here are highlights from the story:

Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held
by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and an influential White House
adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and
related matters, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Kushner, who held meetings in December with
the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, is being investigated because
of the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, the people
said.

FBI agents also remain keenly interested in former Trump
national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul
Manafort, but Kushner is the only current White House official known to be
considered a key person in the probe.

The Post has not been told that Kushner is a
target — or the central focus — of the investigation, and he has not been
accused of any wrongdoing. “Target” is a word that generally refers to someone
who is the main suspect of investigators’ attention, though prosecutors can and
do bring charges against people who are not marked with that distinction.

In addition to possible coordination between the Kremlin and the
Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election, investigators are
also looking broadly into possible financial crimes — but the people familiar
with the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly, did not specify who
or what was being examined.

In early December, Kushner met in New York with the Russian
ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, and he later sent a deputy to
meet with Kislyak.

Kushner also met in December with Sergey Gorkov, the head of
Vnesheconombank, which has been the subject of U.S. sanctions following
Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

In addition to the December meetings, a former senior
intelligence official said FBI agents had been looking closely at earlier
exchanges between Trump associates and the Russians dating to the spring of
2016, including one at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Kushner and Kislyak —
along with close Trump adviser and current attorney general Jeff Sessions —
were present at anApril 2016 event at the Mayflowerwhere
then-candidate Trump promised in a speech to seek better relations with Russia.
It is unclear whether Kushner and Kislyak interacted there.

In many ways, Kushner is a unique figure inside the White House. He is arguably the president’s most trusted
adviser, and he is also a close member of the president’s family. His list of
policy responsibilities is vast — his foreign policy portfolio alone includes
Canada and Mexico, China, and peace in the Middle East — yet he rarely speaks
publicly about any of them.

A small group of lawmakers known as the Gang of Eight was
recently notified of the change in tempo and focus in the investigation at a
classified briefing.

Investigators are continuing to look aggressively into the
dealings of Flynn, and a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., recently issued a
subpoenas for records related to Flynn’s businesses and finances, according to
people familiar with the matter.

Separately from the probe now run by Mueller, Flynn is being
investigated by the Pentagon’s top watchdog for his foreign payments. Flynn
also received $45,000 to appear in 2015 with Russian President Vladimir Putin
at a dinner for RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization.

Keep the popcorn coming. To be honest, I want to see Trump - and Pence - go down and whoever needs to go with them is fine with me.

With Republicans pushing for "bathroom bills" and "religious freedom laws" - better described as special right to discriminate laws - and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos wanting to "bring God back into the classroom," the atmosphere for LGBT children and youths could quickly become toxic. And then there is racist and homophobic Jeff Sessions' reversal of Justice Department support for the protection of LGBT youth under existing laws that would grant protection against discrimination due to sexual orientation and/or gender identity. It is a troubling situation, especially given the higher drop out and suicide rate for LGBT youth, not because of their sexuality or gender identity per se, but because of the mistreatment and abuse the "godly folk" and their off spring believe they have the right to inflict upon them. Indeed, Betsy DeVos' family has given millions of dollars to groups that seek to guaranty the continued right to abuse and bully LGBT students and obstruct efforts to protect them. A piece in The Advocate looks at the problem and proposes some solutions that may be difficult to achieve given the anti-LGBT agenda being pushed by the Trump/Pence regime. Here are excerpts:

A
recently released RTI International study sheds new light on the school safety
issues facing LGBTQ youth. The study, which examined two decades of research on
victimization among LGBTQ youth, uncovered a troubling picture of the
environments LGBTQ students face in schools.

Physical and verbal bullying of LGBTQ students is commonplace. In a
representative sample of eighth-graders in Washington State, 14 percent of boys
and 11 percent of girls reported being bullied because of their perceived
sexual orientation in the past 30 days alone. LGBTQ students are two to three
times more likely than their peers to be physically assaulted or threatened at
school.

Students who experience anti-LGBTQ
bullying are significantly more likely to report depression and suicide
attempts, skipping school, poorer school performance, and dropping out of
school. Victims of anti-LGBTQ bullying tend to fare worse than students bullied
for other reasons, perhaps due to the ways that hate-related victimization
reinforces existing perceptions of hostility (e.g., hearing homophobic comments
at school).

Even within this scenario, Orwellian equality rears its head. While
research shows many LGBTQ students are victimized, some are more likely to be
than others. Transgender youth and youth with unique gender expressions are at
a higher risk for bullying, as are those in rural or impoverished communities and
those who attend schools without gay-straight alliances.

As
LGBTQ individuals come out earlier than before, it’s becoming even more
pressing for schools to create a safe environment for their students.

Action is urgently needed to address the hostile environment that LGBTQ
youth face at school and its effects on school engagement, mental health, and
long-term opportunities. Our study points to three potential strategies that
could help to address these issues:

• Competency and advocacy training for school psychologists and teachers —
who generally report supportive attitudes toward LGBTQ students but lack the
knowledge and skills to advocate for them — could help create more supportive,
less hostile climates in schools.

• Fostering the development of gay-straight alliances in schools, which
seem to offer some protection against school-based victimization risk, is
another promising approach. Although secondary schools are not permitted to ban
gay-straight alliances if they allow other extracurricular groups (per the
Federal Equal Access Act of 1984), school principals still commonly take
measures to exclude them (American Civil Liberties Union, 2015). Such
discriminatory practices must be addressed and replaced with active support for
groups and services that make schools safer.

• Increasing resources to respond to victims of anti-LGBTQ bullying,
particularly to prevent suicide and school dropout. Affirming and culturally
responsive services for LGBTQ bullying victims are critical, particularly given
the fact that help-seeking often requires LGBTQ students to disclose not only
the stigmatized experience of bullying and victimization, but also a
stigmatized gender or sexual identity to school counselors or other
professionals.

While I was not "out" in high school - I remained closeted for over two decades after I graduated - I recall some of the bullying and harassment I received. No student should ever be place in a situation where thoughts of suicide are ever present and suicide seems to be the only means of escape. I experienced this first hand.

There are two groups that the 81% of evangelical Christians who voted for Donald Trump, a/k/a Der Trumpenführer, hate just as fervently as Hispanic immigrants: gays and blacks. If one looks, beneath the veneer of most supposedly Christian "family values" groups - think Family Research Council or The Family Foundation here in Virginia - there is a strong white supremacist undercurrent. The anti-gay agenda of these groups is in open view for all to see. Thus, who would be pleased by drastic cuts in AIDS treatment programs? The Christofascists and "family values" crowd, of course. And in his proposed budget cuts, Trump appears anxious to please this portion of his base. The consequences in Africa would be horrific and cost a million lives. These lost lives would be black individuals, so Trump and his evangelical Christian base seemingly believe this is just fine. A piece in the New York Times looks at this ugly proposal (Note: funding for contraception - another thing opposed by the Christofascists - would also be slashed) . Here are story highlights:

At least one million people will die in sub-Saharan Africa and
elsewhere, researchers and advocates said on Tuesday, if funding cuts proposed
by the Trump administration to global public health programs are enacted.

The United States currently
spends more than $6 billion annually on programs that buy antiretroviral drugs
for about 11.5 million people worldwide who are infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The
Trump administration has proposed slashing those programs by at least $1.1
billion — nearly a fifth of their current funding, said Jen Kates, a vice
president at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“These are lifesaving
interventions, and these levels of reductions will significantly curtail
service delivery,” Ms. Kates said.

Much of the success of anti-AIDS efforts in Africa has come from a
guarantee in many countries that people who test positive for H.I.V. can
immediately receive treatment.

With a huge share of
Africa’s population reaching sexual maturity in the next four years, the virus
could again imperil much of the continent if fewer people are treated, said
Brian Honermann, deputy director at amfAR, a foundation that invests in AIDS
research.

Much of the United States government’s funding for AIDS treatment and
research is funneled through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or
Pepfar, which was established in 2004 by President George W. Bush in an effort
to save Africa from an epidemic that threatened to kill much of the population
of entire countries, like Botswana and Namibia.

President
Barack Obama expanded Pepfar, and combined with the Global Fund and other
international efforts, the spending is widely credited with arresting the AIDS
epidemic.

The
Trump administration has also proposed eliminating $524 million in funding for
contraceptives and other family planning efforts that mostly benefit women in
developing nations.

It is unclear how many lives could be lost as a direct result of the
budget cuts, but the Global Fund estimates that every $100 million invested
saves about 133,000 lives. An
amfAR calculation found a similar effect, suggesting that the
administration’s proposed cuts to AIDS programs alone could cost more than one
million lives and orphan more than 300,000 children.

“All of these programs have multiplier effects beyond just
those immediately served by them,” said J. Stephen Morrison, who directs global
health work at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “For the
first time ever, after 15 years of steady growth, we’re going to see a radical
regression that will have huge effects.”

Even George W. Bush - an individual I continue to loath - supported these AIDS programs. Sadly, since 2009, the GOP and is allegedly Christian base has become increasingly hideous and callous to the lives of others.

As noted in prior posts, I have been acquainted with former Senator and now U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions since my days in Alabama in the late 1970's and early 1980's. The man was foul and reprehensible then and he is equally so now. Here's what I said about Sessions back in early February:

While I was still living in
Mobile, a 19 year old black man named Michael Donaldwas
murdered in what was the last recordedlynching in the United States. Several Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members
beat and killed Michael Donald, and hanged his body from a tree.
Session's office did not prosecute the case, but both men were arrested and
convicted.Subsequently, due to the efforts of Thomas Figures, the Assistant U.S.
Attorney in Mobile, FBI agent James Bodman, and Michael Figures, a state
senator and civil rights activist, the killers were ultimately arrested over
two and a half years after the murder and were prosecuted, with one receiving
the death penalty. After dropping the ball on the Donald case, Sessions prosecuted three black
community organizers in theBlack belt of Alabama, includingMartin Luther King Jr.'s former aideAlbert Turner, forvoter fraud, alleging tampering with
14 absentee ballots. The prosecution stirred charges of selective prosecution
of black voter registration. The defendants, known as the Marion Three, were
acquitted of all charges by a jury.

In addition to being a racist, Sessions is also a virulent homophobe and, as CNN reports, a liar. Specifically, when Sessions submitted forms for his top security clearance, Sessions lied about every having meet with Russian intelligence and other Russian government officials. Here are article excerpts:

Attorney
General Jeff Sessions did not disclose meetings he had last year with Russian
officials when he applied for his security clearance, the Justice Department
told CNN Wednesday.

Sessions,
who met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least two times last year,
didn't note those interactions on the form, which requires him to list
"any contact" he or his family had with a "foreign
government" or its "representatives" over the past seven years,
officials said.

The
new information from the Justice Department is the latest example of Sessions
failing to disclose contacts he had with Russian officials. He has come under
withering criticism from Democrats following revelations that he did not
disclose the same contacts with Kislyak during his Senate confirmation hearings
earlier this year.

A
legal expert who regularly assists officials in filling out the form disagrees
with the Justice Department's explanation, suggesting that Sessions should have
disclosed the meetings.

"My
interpretation is that a member of Congress would still have to reveal the
appropriate foreign government contacts notwithstanding it was on official
business," said Mark Zaid, a Washington attorney who specializes in
national security law.

Zaid
added that in a similar circumstance he advised a member of Congress to list
all foreign contacts -- including those made during official US government
business.

To
obtain a security clearance, a federal official is not required to list the
meetings if they were part of a foreign conference he or she attended while
conducting government business. Sessions' meetings, however, do not appear to
be tied to foreign conferences.

The
omission comes after problems that Trump adviser Jared Kushner and the President's
ex-national security adviser, Michael Flynn, have had on their own security
forms. Kushner prematurely submitted his SF-86 form without listing
foreign contacts and had to notify the FBI the next day that he was willing to
provide the information. Flynn is under investigation for not properly
disclosing payments linked to Russia for his foreign trips.

Lawmakers
have raised questions about Sessions' meetings with Russian officials while he
played a prominent role in the Trump campaign -- meetings that he only
disclosed after The Washington Post revealed them. He is under scrutiny as well
for his role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey despite his recusal from
the Russia investigation.

At his confirmation hearing January 10, Sessions testified
that he "did not have communications" with the Russians during the
campaign. He made the same assertion in an official questionnaire.

Lawmakers
on the House and Senate intelligence committees say it is possible that
Sessions could be questioned about those meetings and his role in the campaign
-- as well as the circumstances around the Comey firing.

Connecticut
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat on the judiciary committee, called for
Sessions to testify publicly after the news of Sessions' omissions broke. On
CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer," Blumenthal said that
the news requires "intense and immediate investigation."

Sessions, of course, claims to be a devout Christian - even though lying, refusing to prosecute KKK killers and racial bigotry don't exactly conform to Christ's gospel message.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Remember all the bloviating by Paul Ryan and a host of other Republicans - including Der Trumpenführer about how the American Health Care Act, a/k/a Trumpcare or Ryancare depending on your inclination to lay blame, would lower costs and expand coverage? Well, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office scoring released today underscores the magnitude of the lies uttered by these individuals. The CBO says that Trumpcare would cause 23 million Americans to lose healthcare coverage. As for the promise of lower premium costs and "quality coverage," that too is a lie. Older Americans in particular would be severely hard hit as would those with seriosus healthcare issues. Indeed, a senior advisor at the Center on Budget
and Policy Priorities, said that the major takeaway from the CBO score is that
Republicans’ talking points simply do not hold up. That is a polite way of saying that Republicans are lying. For Republicans, apparently the Commandment against lying has been excised from the Ten Commandments. Candidly, the only beneficiaries of Trumpcare are the wealthy who would enjoy a huge tax break. First these excerpts from the New York Times:

It would reduce the federal
deficit by $119 billion over a decade, less than the $150 billion in savings
projected in late March for an earlier version of the bill. And in states that
seek waivers from rules mandating essential health coverage, the new law could
make insurance economically out of reach for some sick consumers.

“Premiums would vary
significantly according to health status and the types of benefits provided,
and less healthy people would face extremely high premiums,” the budget office
concluded.

The
new forecast of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Capitol Hill’s
official scorekeeper, is another blow to Republican efforts to undo President
Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement. The Senate has already said it will make substantial changes to the
measure passed by the House, but even Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the
majority leader, is sounding uncertain about his chances of finding a majority
to repeal and replace the health law.

The
report provided fresh ammunition for Democrats trying to kill the repeal bill,
which they have derided as “Trumpcare.”

Under
the House bill, states could opt out of certain provisions of the health care
law, including one that requires insurers to provide a minimum set of health
benefits and another that prohibits them from charging higher premiums based on
a person’s health status.

Jacob Leibenluft, senior
advisor at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said that the major
takeaway from the CBO score is that Republicans’ talking points don’t hold up.
AHCA supporters still claim that the waivers wouldn’t harm anyone who needed
essential health benefits or anyone with preexisting conditions, but this bill
doesn’t bear that out.

“What the changes of bills have effectively done
is resulted in system where sicker and older people are even worse off in terms
of how much they would pay and quality of insurance coverage they would get.”
Leibenluft said. Thosechanges
would do little to boost overall coverage numbers, either.

“I think what that points to is how deeply
unfixable the basic structure is. The problem is they’re pursuing hundreds of
billions in tax cuts in a bill that needs to reduce deficit and that requires
deep cuts to health coverage. And it’s not possible to undo those cuts to
coverage while maintaining that basic structure.”

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Out gay attorney in a committed relationship; formerly married and father of three wonderful children; sometime activist and political/news junkie; survived coming out in mid-life and hope to share my experiences and reflections with others.
In the career/professional realm, I am affiliated with Caplan & Associates PC where I practice in the areas of real estate, estate planning (Wills, Trusts, Advanced Medical Directives, Financial Powers of Attorney, Durable Medical Powers of Attorney); business law and commercial transactions; formation of corporations and limited liability companies and legal services to the gay, lesbian and transgender community, including birth certificate amendment.

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